Unlike California’s majestic rivers and massive dams and
conveyance systems, groundwater is out of sight and underground,
though no less plentiful. The state’s enormous cache of
underground water is a great natural resource and has contributed
to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural producer and
leader in high-tech industries.
Groundwater is also increasingly relied upon by growing cities
and thirsty farms, and it plays an important role in the future
sustainability of California’s overall water supply. In an
average year, roughly 40 percent of California’s water supply
comes from groundwater.
A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 with the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires local
and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable
groundwater management plans with the state as the backstop.
The Imperial Irrigation District has taken a stance on where
solar energy projects should go. The board passed a resolution
saying too much farmland in the Imperial Valley is being
replaced with solar panels. Most of the power from these
projects goes to big cities like San Diego, not the local
community. IID officials say they support solar development,
but not at the expense of agriculture. “One in every six jobs
in the Imperial Valley is directly related to agriculture, so
solar is great, as long as it’s not on ag land,” said Robert
Schettler with IID. The district also says farmland plays a
role in helping the Salton Sea. “When growers
grow, whatever the size of their farmland is, one third of the
water that goes onto the field drains off and goes to the
Salton Sea, so if you take ag out of production you’re not only
affecting the local economy, you’re affecting the Salton Sea,”
said Schettler. … IID is encouraging future solar
projects to be built on desert or unused land instead.
Sonoma County’s groundwater is quietly
vanishing beneath our feet, and the numbers are alarming. In
parts of Sonoma Valley, deep aquifers have plummeted nearly 100
feet in the last decade, according to recent reports from the
Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA). With
some wells dropping as much as eight feet per year, residents
and businesses alike have good reason to be worried. …
Drilling a new well can cost $50,000 or more, a financial blow
that smaller family-run vineyards find especially daunting.
Sonoma Valley has responded by expanding a recycled water
pipeline on the east side, delivering treated wastewater for
irrigation and reducing pressure on depleted aquifers.
… The county is experimenting with Aquifer Storage
and Recovery (ASR), injecting excess treated Russian River
water underground during rainy months, banking it for future
dry spells.
California farmers, agricultural commissioners and lawmakers
have in recent months sounded an alarm about a troubling
symptom of the state’s struggling farm economy.
“Everywhere you turn there’s an abandoned vineyard,” said Randy
Baranek, project manager for the Stanislaus County-based
agricultural service provider Fowler Brothers. He estimated
there are twice as many untended grapevines in the Central
Valley this year than he has ever seen. … The phenomenon has
led to widespread concern that pests harbored in abandoned
orchards and vineyards could impact adjacent
farms. … Farmers cautioned that the situation could
get worse before it improves. While almond prices have improved
this year, the winegrape market has not. Meanwhile, limits
on groundwater pumping under California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act have led some growers in parts of
the San Joaquin Valley to begin abandoning orchards.
El Verano and eastern Sonoma Valley face worsening groundwater
shortages, leading officials to designate those regions as
Groundwater Sustainability Priority Areas requiring stronger
conservation efforts. The Sonoma Valley Groundwater
Sustainability Agency made the announcement in June following
years of observing the continously declining water levels in
the Valley’s deep aquifers, some of which have dropped by
nearly 100 feet over the last decade. In the most severely
impacted zones, groundwater levels are falling by as much as 8
feet per year, officials say. … The primary cause of the
crisis is over-pumping of deep aquifers — those more than 200
feet below ground — which recharge significantly slower than
shallow aquifers.
The Imperial Irrigation District, which provides water to
farmers in the southeastern corner of California, drew a
figurative line in the sand earlier this month, calling for a
halt to the conversion of agricultural fields into solar panel
farms. … The state Department of Conservation says that
agricultural lands declined by more than 1.6 million acres
between 1984 and 2018, averaging 47,000 acres a year. The most
productive land experienced the largest
decline. … As farmers, particularly the larger
corporate growers, take land out of production, many believe
that their economic salvation lies in solar panel arrays that
generate the emission-free electricity that the state wants, as
it phases out power fueled by hydrocarbons. However, that
doesn’t sit well with farmers who want to continue production,
as the Imperial Irrigation District’s call for a solar
moratorium implies. –Written by CalMatters columnist Dan Walters.
Unsustainable groundwater overpumping in
California has triggered the need to transition hundreds of
thousands of acres of irrigated agricultural land into less
water-intensive activities to make water use
sustainable. … After years of work done by our
community of practice and scientists, we just published a much
needed and comprehensive framework for best practices in
cropland repurposing that can benefit everyone involved. This
community of practice includes community leaders, farmer and
farmworker advocates, scientists, and practitioners across
California’s agricultural regions. … In addition to our
recent Roadmap for a Just Land Transition, our team of 54
coauthors (with the help of many collaborators and participants
in public events) published a paper introducing a framework for
best practices in cropland repurposing in the journal Frontiers
in Water. In the next sections of this blog I will briefly
summarize some of the most important takeaways from this work.
Building and maintaining a healthy water supply for Butte
County happens quite literally from the ground up. …
Maintaining and planning for water storage and water usage is a
sizable task that is overseen not only by the Butte County
Department of Water Resource Conservation, but also individual
agencies that work in tandem on local water management. Kamie
Loeser, director of Butte County’s Water and Resource
Conservation Department, said the majority of groundwater
within the county is used both for agriculture and by
municipalities such as the city of Chico. … Loeser and her
team of hydrologists spend a significant amount of time every
year checking water levels at different points of the three
subbasins. The department recently provided an annual report on
groundwater conditions to the Butte County Board of
Supervisors.
As Great Salt Lake’s levels continue to sag, yet another
strange phenomenon has surfaced, offering Utah scientists more
opportunities to plumb the vast saline lake’s
secrets. Phragmites-covered mounds in recent years have
appeared on the drying playa off the lake’s southeast shore.
After several years of scratching their heads, University of
Utah geoscientists, deploying a network of piezometers and
aerial electromagnetic surveys, are now finding out what’s
going on under the lakebed that is creating these reed-choked
oases. Bill Johnson, a professor in the Department of Geology &
Geophysics, suspects the circular mounds have formed at spots
where a subsurface plumbing system delivers fresh
groundwater under pressure into the lake and its
surrounding wetlands. … One goal of Johnson’s research
is to determine whether the groundwater can be tapped to
restore broken lakebed crusts, thereby reducing dust
pollution.
Energy companies that manage coal ash dumps have asked the
Trump administration for relief from a new regulation requiring
them to inspect and monitor those retention ponds for signs of
pollution. If EPA grants their request, it could delay cleanup
of one the nation’s most significant sources of industrial
waste. In a sweeping rule issued last year, EPA directed
companies to begin cleaning up over 100 coal ash dumps and
landfills, some of which are known to leak toxic,
cancer-causing metals like mercury, lead and arsenic into
groundwater. Now, companies say they are
struggling to evaluate those sites for signs of leaks and
structural problems, as required under the rule. Describing the
rule’s deadlines as “unreasonable and unworkable,” the Utility
Solid Waste Activities Group has asked EPA to delay additional
requirements until the agency creates a permit program to
“review, approve, and verify the existence” of coal ash sites
across the country, according to a letter viewed by POLITICO’s
E&E News.
A new groundwater sustainability agency that has struggled to
get its footing in recent months is on a fresh trajectory with
a new general manager. Michael Knight, Porterville
assistant city manager, is leaving the city to take the reins
as manager of the Porterville Groundwater Sustainability
Agency. He also will serve as assistant manager for Porterville
Irrigation District. His first day is Aug. 4.
… Landowners have repeatedly voiced concerns over
management and transparency issues since the Porterville ID
board voted to break away from the embattled Eastern Tule GSA
in February. That move came amidst fallout from a ruling by the
state Water Resources Control Board to place the Tule subbasin
on probation for its lack of a cohesive groundwater plan that
would staunch runaway subsidence in the region and protect
domestic wells.
A state water quality agency hopes to tackle a problem as old
as civilization itself – salt build up from irrigation. The
Central Valley Salinity Alternatives for Long-Term
Sustainability (CV-SALTS) is working with local water managers
and using state-of-the-art engineering software to understand
how groundwater moves through the western Kings and
Delta-Mendota subbasins as part of a long-term salt study. The
salt study, which began in 2022, aims to develop a Central
Valley-wide plan to manage salinity, focusing first on the
Kings and Delta-Mendota subbasins. … The salt study is
still laying the groundwork to understand the complex San
Joaquin Valley watershed and aquifer system. CV-SALTS will
begin developing water and salt management plans by 2026 and
develop a prioritization plan by 2028.
A newly signed bill giving developers the ability to buy and
retire farmland in favor of subdivisions has been hailed by
supporters as the single biggest improvement in state water law
since the landmark Arizona Groundwater Management Act passed 45
years ago. It’s been promoted as a ticket to water savings,
since homes typically use significantly less water than cotton
fields. It’s also seen as a path to more affordable housing in
the Phoenix area and Pinal County, where the law would have an
impact. … But what’s called the Ag to Urban law comes with a
big question mark that centers on the often downplayed concept
of groundwater replenishment. The law will significantly
increase the amount of water that must be recharged into the
aquifer to compensate for groundwater pumped by new homes that
are built on retired farmland. As of now, it’s not clear
where that extra water will come from.
… California has a semi-arid climate, with several desert and
desert-like regions, including the southern San Joaquin Valley,
the Mojave Desert, the Mono Lake region, and the Imperial
Valley/Salton Sea area. When these locations experience strong
winds, it mobilizes dust particles, and fallowing facilitates
dust emission by exposing the surface to strong winds. These
events will likely increase with rising temperatures. Human
health is front of mind here: direct exposure to dust causes
respiratory and cardiovascular issues and Valley fever. But
there are other implications as well. We know, for instance,
that dust impacts snowpack. Snow typically reflects a lot of
solar energy back into space. However, any impurities on its
surface can reduce that reflection. Dust-covered snow absorbs
part of the solar energy, and the more that happens, the faster
the snow melts. That can lead to earlier snowmelt and increased
river runoff at the beginning of the season, potentially
increasing water scarcity at the end of the growing season.
At the beginning of the year, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs
introduced a plan to conserve shrinking rural groundwater
supplies. But that, and similar efforts, died in the
GOP-controlled Legislature. In rural areas of the state, many
communities rely on dwindling groundwater supplies where there
are no restrictions on water pumping. Rural Republicans stood
with Hobbs in January when she announced her plan to address
the problem by creating rural management areas around
endangered groundwater basins where pumping would be
restricted. But it didn’t get consideration by legislative
Republicans. Hobbs said Tuesday she hasn’t given up. “We made
progress and we’ve clearly shown the support for this kind of
legislation exists across the state and that rural Arizonans
want something done and we’ll continue to find a way to get
that done,” she said.
California is at a groundwater management crossroads as legal
loopholes threaten to undo the state’s progress toward
responsible groundwater sustainability. At the core of this
legal conflict are two legal processes. The first is the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the landmark law
passed in 2014 to bring order to overdrafting of basins and
ensure long-term sustainability of the state’s groundwater
resources. The second is groundwater adjudications, a
legal tool to determine water rights of who can pump water and
how much they can use. … Assembly Bill 1413 is
sensible, straightforward legislation that would strengthen the
state’s efforts to manage this precious resource. AB 1413 is
intended to protect the right to challenging a sustainability
plan, but at the same time, preserve the integrity of the
groundwater law’s process and provide clarity to judges in
adjudications. –Written by Scott Hayman, chair of the Indian Wells Valley
Groundwater Authority.
On a recent sunny Monday morning, 85-year-old Doug Brown pulled
up to a breakfast joint in Willits in his white pickup. Bold
white letters on the tinted camper shell window spelled out
“Water Witcher,” with Brown’s phone number written just below.
Inside the truck was a quiver of wire rods, each tipped with
different metals or materials, to be used for Brown’s practice
of an archaic tradition: water dowsing. In an age defined by
dry spells and dwindling resources, an unlikely group continues
to quietly deploy their centuries-old practice in search of
water. Called dowsers, water witchers or diviners, members of
this eclectic guild claim they can locate the Earth’s hidden
reservoirs using primitive technology and intuition, all for a
price.
In a bipartisan compromise between state lawmakers and the
executive branch, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs approved a
program estimated to conserve nearly 10 million acre-feet of
water and facilitate thousands of new housing developments
across central Arizona. State Senator T.J. Shope’s Senate
Bill 1611 met Hobbs’ pen Monday morning, setting in motion what
state officials refer to as the “Ag-to-Urban” plan. …
Under the program, farmers in either of the active management
areas would voluntarily relinquish groundwater rights on
individual acres of land irrigated by groundwater in three of
the previous five years. In exchange, a farmer would receive
conservation credits based on the number of acres
relinquished. The farmer would then sell the acres to land
developers, who would “pledge” the credits to a water provider
that services that land.
In all the talk about the San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater
restrictions and resulting loss of agriculture, it’s important
to consider how transitioning from farming operations to
clean-energy production creates construction job opportunities
for thousands of area workers. The mandate to meet state clean
energy goals by 2045 — and the loss of farmland due to
groundwater restrictions under the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act — have opened the door to a vast solar resource
that can keep land economically productive and local people
employed in good jobs for the long term. But current law makes
these land transitions cumbersome and complicated, hampering
the region’s potential to become a solar energy hub. If
corrected, the switch from unusable farmland to low-water-use,
clean energy projects would generate billions in tax revenue
and labor income while lowering household electric bills and
cleaning up our air.
The Kaweah subbasin is the second San Joaquin Valley region to
successfully escape state intervention, managers learned
today. In a phone call with state Water Resources Control
Board staff, managers of Kaweah’s three groundwater
sustainability agencies got the news that their efforts to
rewrite their groundwater management plans were good enough for
staff to recommend that they return to Department of Water
Resources oversight. … The Chowchilla subbasin
successfully made the u-turn from state enforcement back to
oversight in early June. Fukuda said Kaweah will follow much
the same path as Chowchilla. The Water Board will consider
the staff recommendation for Kaweah at a meeting in the fall,
when it can pass a resolution formally sending Kaweah back to
DWR. Returning to DWR oversight guarantees landowners
freedom from additional fees under the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act, which mandates that overdraft stop and aquifers
reach balance by 2040.
California is now ten years into a revolution in groundwater
management. In 2014, the state passed the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) which requires newly formed
local groundwater sustainability agencies to develop long-term
plans to reduce overdraft by 2040. To date, more than 250 local
agencies have written and begun implementing groundwater
sustainability plans, with more than 100 plans in action. This
has taken enormous effort and represents a significant
departure from the prior status quo for groundwater management
in California. Many wonder, however, if SGMA is affecting
behavior around the use of the groundwater resource yet. Are
farmers making decisions around planting or drilling new
groundwater wells with future SGMA reductions in mind? If so,
are they switching away from permanent crops that may not have
available water through 2040? We set out to answer those
questions with publicly available data.
In a comment letter to the state Water Resources Control Board,
one of the plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit over Kern River
flows alleges information has been withheld from the region’s
groundwater plan to the detriment of the river. Water Audit
California states a number of entities, including the City of
Bakersfield and its main drinking water purveyor California
Water Services, “…failed to disclose the adverse impacts that
their groundwater extraction is having on
interconnected surface waters, thereby causing
injury to the public trust and its biological components,”
according to the June 20 letter. … Water Audit contends
that diverting Kern River water into groundwater recharge
basins that are then pumped for drinking water, creates an
interconnectivity that may affect stream flows. … Kern’s
plan states that there are no areas of interconnectivty in the
subbasin per the definition under SGMA regulations, which is
that there must be a continuous connection between underground
and overlying surface water.
California’s existing groundwater infrastructure may fail to
quench the state’s thirst in an increasingly arid future, even
as officials celebrate widespread conservation achievements,
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) warned on Tuesday. “The data doesn’t lie,
and it is telling us that our water system is unprepared for
California’s hotter and drier climate,” Newsom said in
a statement. The governor was referring to data
published in a semiannual report by the California Department
of Water Resources that morning. The report, which indicated
California is collecting more groundwater data than ever
before, showed a 2.2 million acre-foot increase in storage last
year. Nonetheless, the governor’s office stressed that the
Golden State still lacks adequate water infrastructure to
provide Californians with the resources they will need in
future projected climate conditions.
A year of average precipitation gave California’s groundwater
supplies a significant boost, according to a state analysis
released Tuesday. California’s aquifers gained an estimated 2.2
million acre-feet of groundwater in the 12 months that ended
Sept. 30, the state’s 2024 water year. That’s about half the
storage capacity of Shasta Lake, California’s largest
reservoir. State officials said local agencies reported that
about 1.9 million acre-feet of water went underground as a
result of managed aquifer recharge projects designed to capture
stormwater and replenish groundwater. … Gov. Gavin
Newsom said California is collecting more groundwater data than
it has previously, and is continuing to prioritize efforts to
recharge aquifers. He said, however, that the state’s water
infrastructure is unprepared for the effects of climate change,
and he reiterated his support for building a water tunnel
beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The Arizona House is taking up the so-called “Ag to Urban
bill.” The Senate approved the bipartisan measure Thursday.
Also known as Senate Bill 1611, the measure provides what
Senate Natural Resources Chair Thomas “T.J.” Shope calls
solutions to Arizona’s most pressing issues: groundwater
protection and skyrocketing home prices due to low supply.
Under the bill, farmers would be allowed to sell their land and
water rights to developers who will in turn build for-sale
housing to meet the needs of Arizona’s growing population. In a
press release, Shope, who’s also the Senate president pro
tempore, called this “the most consequential piece of
groundwater legislation” in decades. ”An analysis of the
Ag-to-Urban program by the Arizona Department of Water
Resources reveals our state will save 9.6-million-acre feet of
water over the next 100 years,” said the Republican senator.
Housing developers left stranded and stalled by a lack of an
assured water supply are getting a lifeline under a deal cut
between Republicans and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. The
proposal, known as “Ag-to-Urban,” allows homebuilders
to buy water rights from farmers who retire their agricultural
land if they promise to use only a certain percentage of the
water to supply new developments. … The deal
immediately affects only Maricopa and Pinal counties, but the
Pima County Active Management Area may also fall under its
guidance if a moratorium on new water certificates is put in
place by state water regulators, (Sen. T.J.) Shope said. If all
three areas were included, more than 400,000 acres of farmland
could be eligible for conversion. … While big developers
are celebrating a win, elected officials in rural Arizona are
criticizing Hobbs for backing the proposal without tying it to
new protections for groundwater in their areas.
… After trying and failing for more than two decades to pump
ancient groundwater from beneath the Mojave Desert and sell it
to Southern California water districts, the controversial
company (Cadiz) has set its sights on new customers over
the border in the Grand Canyon State. … On Monday, the
Interior Department announced plans to sign a memorandum of
understanding with the latest incarnation of the project,
called the Mojave Groundwater Bank, touting it as “an important
tool to improve drought resiliency in the Colorado River Basin”
though recognizing that it is only in “early development.” And
on Tuesday, the Trump administration official leading Colorado
River negotiations for the federal government suggested to
water power players in Arizona that they consider the project.
… Opponents of the project, including conservation
groups who say it could harm sensitive desert ecosystems, still
see it as the same old concept.
Tulare County farmers are incensed by a proposed new fee
structure that they say will put the entire burden of state
groundwater oversight across the San Joaquin Valley solely on
their shoulders. It costs the state Water Resources Control
Board about $5.5 million a year to oversee six basins in the
San Joaquin Valley that have been found to have inadequate
groundwater plans as part of the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Two of those
subbasins have been placed on probation, under which farmers
are required to pay fees to reimburse the state for those
oversight costs. One of those subbasins has, so far,
escaped the fees pending the outcome of a legal
action. … At a June 11 online Water Board workshop,
staff unveiled a new fee structure they say will repay state
costs and protect small farmers. Tule subbasin farmers say the
proposed fee structure, expected to raise $6.6
million, is unfair.
As the Senate continues to comb through the Big Beautiful Bill,
258 million acres of public land across the western U.S.,
including large swaths of California, could soon be eligible
for sale. A map published by the Wilderness Society, a
nonprofit land conservation organization, reveals which parcels
of land across 11 states would be up for grabs, in accordance
with the land sale proposal detailed by Sen. Mike Lee, a
Republican from Utah and the chairman of the Senate Committee
on Energy and Natural Resources. If the budget is passed
by the July 4 deadline, an estimated 16 million acres in
California are at risk of being sold over the next five years.
Those vulnerable parcels of land include areas adjacent
to Yosemite National Park, Mount Shasta, Big Sur and Lake
Tahoe. … In all, up to 3 million acres across
all states would be authorized to be sold out of 258 million
eligible acres across the West.
… Eastern San Joaquin County, like the rest of the Central
Valley, is facing an uncertain future due to the looming state
groundwater mandate that requires basins not
to pump more water from an aquifer than is replenished in a
given year. It is safe to say Milton will feel the pain
when it comes big time. To prevent a similar fate, the SSJID
has developed a long range water plan critical in its fight to
keep the state from ignoring historical front-of-the-line
legally adjudicated water rights to commandeer water from the
Stanislaus River basin to use as they see fit. That,
coupled with the groundwater mandate, would have a major
negative impact on Manteca, Ripon, Escalon and the surrounding
countryside as well as Lathrop and Tracy. While it wouldn’t
send the South County back to the 1880s, it would still be
devastating. And if you think this is only a problem for
farmers, guess again. Choke off the water supply based on
average or above average precipitation years, and you will
devalue existing homes. –Written by Manteca Bulletin editor Dennis Wyatt.
In the desert of landlocked Arizona, where the Colorado
River crisis has put water use under a microscope,
Mainstream Aquaculture has a fish farm where it’s growing the
tropical species barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass, for
American restaurants. … But some experts question whether
growing fish on a large scale in an arid region can work
without high environmental costs. That question comes down to
what people collectively decide is a good use of water.
… The farm uses groundwater, not
Colorado River water. … Arizona has seven areas around the
state where groundwater is rigorously managed. Dateland doesn’t
fall into one of those, so the only rule that really governs it
is a law saying if you land own there, you can pump a
“reasonable” amount of groundwater. … What might be
considered “reasonable” depends from crop to crop, and there’s
really no precedent for aquaculture, an industry that hasn’t
yet spread commercially statewide.
The Port of Los Angeles will need to clean up widespread water
contamination in the city’s harbor by shoring up sewage
treatment operations, according to a settlement approved by a
federal judge. The settlement was the result of
a lawsuit filed by the organization Environment
California last summer accusing the port of violating the
Clean Water Act by unleashing toxic pollutants
into the San Pedro Bay. The group maintained that the port
had conducted more than 2,000 illegal wastewater discharges in
the previous five years alone — releases that
routinely surpassed limits on fecal bacteria, copper and
other contaminants. The settlement approved on Tuesday
tasks the port with improving its management and treatment of
stormwater and groundwater,
through provisions requiring the elimination of fecal bacteria
from the groundwater.
A small panel managed to extract a glassful of clean water from
the bone-dry air of Death Valley in California, which suggests
that the device could provide the vital resource to arid
regions. The atmosphere over extremely dry land can hold large
volumes of water, but extracting this in significant quantities
without power is difficult. In the past, researchers have come
up with innovative ways to tap into this reservoir, such as
fog-catching nets made from simple mesh fabrics or spider
silk-like artificial fibres, but they have struggled to make
them work effectively in real-world conditions. Now,
Xuanhe Zhao at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
his colleagues have developed a power-free water-collecting
device that is about 0.5 metres tall and 0.1 m across. It is
comprised of a glass panel that contains an absorbent hydrogel,
a jelly-like substance made from long-chain polymers, and
lithium salts that can store water molecules.
Last year, after the historic removal of four dams on the
Klamath River, thousands of salmon rushed
upstream into the long-blocked waters along the
California-Oregon border, seeking out the cold, plentiful flows
considered crucial to the fish’s future. The return of salmon
to their ancestral home was a fundamental goal of dam removal
and a measure of the project’s success. However, a problem
emerged. The returning salmon only got so far. Eight miles
upriver from the former dam sites lies a still-existing dam,
the 41-foot-tall Keno Dam in southern Oregon. The dam has a
fish ladder that’s supposed to help with fish passage, but it
didn’t prove to work. While many proponents of dam removal
say they’re thrilled with just how far the salmon got, most of
the 420 miles of waterways that salmon couldn’t reach before
the dam demolition still appear largely unreachable.
New subsidence guidelines from the Department of Water
Resources are expected to drop on San Joaquin Valley water
managers any day, a prospect that has them both hopeful and
worried. The intent of the guidelines is to provide clarity
within the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA), which requires overdrafted regions to
enact plans to bring aquifers into balance by 2040. One of
SGMA’s primary goals is to halt subsidence, land
sinking. Excessive groundwater pumping has caused huge
swaths of the San Joaquin Valley to sink, damaging canals,
roads and increasing flood risks. Some areas have collapsed on
such a large scale, the phenomenon can be seen from space,
earning the nickname “the Corcoran
bowl.” Subsidence, though, has been a tricky devil to
manage.
A federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Forest Service
cannot transfer land containing Oak Flat, a site sacred to the
Western Apache, to a copper mining company until two cases
against the project are settled after the Forest Service
publishes its final environmental review for the project. …
The legal battle over Oak Flat, known in Apache as Chi’chil
Biłdagoteel, has been one of the most high-profile mining cases
in the country over the past decade. … It would …
use as much water each year as the city of
Tempe, home to Arizona State University and 190,000
people. It would pull water from the same tapped-out
aquifer the Phoenix metro area relies on,
where Arizona has prohibited more extraction except for
exempted uses like mines.
Cities across California and the Southwest are significantly
increasing and diversifying their use of recycled wastewater as
traditional water supplies grow tighter.
The 5th edition of our Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
covers the latest trends and statistics on water reuse as a
strategic defense against prolonged drought and climate change.
This special, first-ever Foundation water tour will not be offered every year! Join us as we examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.
Running Y Resort
5500 Running Y Rd
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
Last week, Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria introduced AB 2060 to
help divert local floodwater into regional groundwater
basins. AB 2060 seeks to streamline the permitting process
to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in support of
Flood-MAR activities when a stream or river has reached
flood-monitor or flood stage as determined by the California
Nevada River Forecast Center or the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB). This expedited approval process would be
temporary during storm events with qualifying flows under the
SWRCB permit.
How will selling groundwater help keep more groundwater in the
San Joaquin Valley’s already critically overtapped aquifers?
Water managers in the Kaweah subbasin in northwestern Tulare
County hope to find out by having farmers tinker with a pilot
groundwater market program. Kaweah farmers will be joining
growers from subbasins up and down the San Joaquin Valley
who’ve been looking at how water markets might help them
maintain their businesses by using pumping allotments and
groundwater credits as assets to trade or sell when water is
tight.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
The 3ʳᵈ International Conference, Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture: Linking Science & Policy took place from June 18 – 20. Organized by the Water Education Foundation and the UC Davis Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair, the conference provided scientists, policymakers, agricultural and environmental interest group representatives, government officials and consultants with the latest scientific, management, legal and policy advances for sustaining our groundwater resources in agricultural regions around the world.
The conference keynote address was provided by Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist and author of books chronicling agriculture and water issues in California’s Central Valley. Arax comes from a family of Central Valley farmers and is praised for writing books that are deeply profound, heartfelt and nuanced including The Dreamt Land, West of the West and The King of California. He did a reading from his latest book The Dreamt Land and commented on the future of groundwater in the Valley during his keynote lunch talk on June 18.
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
1333 Bayshore Hwy
Burlingame, CA 94010
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
A new underground mapping technology
that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in
California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the
state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.
The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources
for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime
underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork
by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming
manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the
composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying
helicopters towing giant magnets.
The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’
resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture
water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus
underground for use during the next drought.
“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really
helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based
on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda,
general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early
adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or
AEM technology in California.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand
about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river
restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720
An online
short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by University of California, Davis and
several other organizations in cooperation with the Water
Education Foundation, will be held May 12, 19,
26 and June 2, 16 from 9 a.m. to noon.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
The San Joaquin Valley has a big
hill to climb in reaching groundwater sustainability. Driven by
the need to keep using water to irrigate the nation’s breadbasket
while complying with California’s Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act, people throughout the valley are looking for
innovative and cost-effective ways to manage and use groundwater
more wisely. Here are three examples.
Groundwater provides about 40
percent of the water in California for urban, rural and
agricultural needs in typical years, and as much as 60 percent in
dry years when surface water supplies are low. But in many areas
of the state, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can
be replenished through natural or artificial means.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Since 1997, more than 430 engineers,
farmers, environmentalists, lawyers, and others have graduated
from our William R. Gianelli Water Leaders program. We’ve
developed a new alumni network
webpage to help program participants connect and keep in
touch.
An
online short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by UC Davis and several other organizations in
cooperation with the Water Education Foundation, will be
held May 21 and 28, June 4, 18, and 25 from 9 a.m. to noon.
The bill is coming due, literally,
to protect and restore groundwater in California.
Local agencies in the most depleted groundwater basins in
California spent months putting together plans to show how they
will achieve balance in about 20 years.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
A diverse roster of top
policymakers and water experts are on the
agenda for the Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit. The conference, Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning, will feature compelling conversations
reflecting on upcoming regulatory deadlines and efforts to
improve water management and policy in the face of natural
disasters.
Tickets for the Water Summit are sold out, but by joining the waitlist we can
let you know when spaces open via cancellations.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
California experienced one of the
most deadly and destructive wildfire years on record in 2018,
with several major fires occurring in the wildland-urban
interface (WUI). These areas, where communities are in close
proximity to undeveloped land at high risk of wildfire, have felt
devastating effects of these disasters, including direct impacts
to water infrastructure and supplies.
One panel at our 2019 Water
Summit Oct. 30 in Sacramento will feature speakers
from water agencies who came face-to-face with two major fires:
The Camp Fire that destroyed most of the town of Paradise in
Northern California, and the Woolsey Fire in the Southern
California coastal mountains. They’ll talk about their
experiences and what lessons they learned.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
Atmospheric rivers, the narrow bands
of moisture that ferry precipitation across the Pacific Ocean to
the West Coast, are necessary to keep California’s water
reservoirs full.
However, some of them are dangerous because the extreme rainfall
and wind can cause catastrophic flooding and damage, much
like what happened in 2017 with Oroville Dam’s spillway.
Learn the latest about atmospheric river research and forecasting
at our 2019 Water
Summit on Oct. 30 in Sacramento, where
prominent research meteorologist Marty Ralph will give the
opening keynote.
With a key deadline for the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in January, one of the
featured panels at our Oct.
30thWater
Summit will focus on how regions around California
are crafting groundwater sustainability plans and working on
innovative ways to fill aquifers.
The theme for this year’s Water Summit, “Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning,” reflects critical upcoming events in California
water, including the imminent Jan. 31, 2020 deadline for
groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) in high- and
medium-priority basins.
Our event calendar is an excellent
resource for keeping up with water events in California and the
West.
Groundwater is top of mind for many water managers as they
prepare to meet next January’s deadline for submitting
sustainability plans required under California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act. We have several upcoming featured
events listed on our calendar that focus on a variety of relevant
groundwater topics:
Registration opens today for the
Water Education Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit, set for Oct. 30 in Sacramento. This year’s
theme, Water Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,
reflects fast-approaching deadlines for the State Groundwater
Management Act as well as the pressing need for new approaches to
water management as California and the West weather intensified
flooding, fire and drought. To register for this can’t-miss
event, visit our Water Summit
event page.
Registration includes a full day of discussions by leading
stakeholders and policymakers on key issues, as well as coffee,
materials, gourmet lunch and an outdoor reception by the
Sacramento River that will offer the opportunity to network with
speakers and other attendees. The summit also features a silent
auction to benefit our Water Leaders program featuring
items up for bid such as kayaking trips, hotel stays and lunches
with key people in the water world.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Our 36th annual
Water Summit,
happening Oct. 30 in Sacramento, will feature the theme “Water
Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,” reflecting upcoming regulatory
deadlines and efforts to improve water management and policy in
the face of natural disasters.
The Summit will feature top policymakers and leading stakeholders
providing the latest information and a variety of viewpoints on
issues affecting water across California and the West.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The whims of political fate decided
in 2018 that state bond money would not be forthcoming to help
repair the subsidence-damaged parts of Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River to
farms that fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy along
the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
Spurred by drought and a major
policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented
mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the
hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to
halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of
recovery.
Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help
characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner
that reflects its original intent.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to
learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most
expensive river restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Groundwater replenishment happens
through direct recharge and in-lieu recharge. Water used for
direct recharge most often comes from flood flows, water
conservation, recycled water, desalination and water
transfers.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
Sinkholes are caused by erosion of
rocks beneath soil’s surface. Groundwater dissolves soft
rocks such as gypsum, salt and limestone, leaving gaps in the
originally solid structure. This is exacerbated when water is
acidic from contact with carbon dioxide or acid rain. Even
humidity can play a major role in destabilizing water
underground.
Irrigation is the artificial supply
of water to grow crops or plants. Obtained from either surface or groundwater, it optimizes
agricultural production when the amount of rain and where it
falls is insufficient. Different irrigation
systems are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in
practical use are often combined. Much of the agriculture in
California and the West relies on irrigation.
The United States
Geographical Survey (USGS) defines freshwater as containing
less than 1,000 milligrams per liter dissolved solids. However,
500 milligrams per liter is usually the cutoff for municipal and
commercial use. Most of the Earth’s water is saline, 97.5
percent with only 2.5 percent fresh.
Springs are where groundwater becomes surface water, acting as openings
where subsurface water can discharge onto the ground or directly
into other water bodies. They can also be considered the
consequence of an overflowing
aquifer. As a result, springs often serve as headwaters to streams.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
Extensometers are among the most valuable devices hydrogeologists
use to measure subsidence, but most people – even water
professionals – have never seen one. They are sensitive and
carefully calibrated, so they are kept under lock and key and are
often in remote locations on private property.
During our California
Groundwater Tour Oct. 5-6, you will see two types of
extensometers used by the California Department of Water
Resources to monitor changes in elevation caused by groundwater
overdraft.
Flowing into the heart of the Mojave Desert, the Mojave River
exists mostly underground. Surface channels are usually dry
absent occasional groundwater surfacing and flooding
from extreme weather events like El Niño.
Alluvium generally refers to the clay, silt, sand and gravel that
are deposited by a stream, creek or other water body.
Alluvium is found around deltas and rivers, frequently
making soils very fertile. Alternatively, “colluvium” refers to
the accumulation at the base of hills, brought there from runoff
(as opposed to a water body). The Oxnard Plain in Ventura
County is a visible alluvial plain, where floodplains have
drifted over time due to gradual deposits of alluvium, a feature
also present in Red Rock Canyon State Park in Kern County.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This issue looks at remote sensing applications and how satellite
information enables analysts to get a better understanding of
snowpack, how much water a plant actually uses, groundwater
levels, levee stability and more.
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled through Inland
Southern California to learn about the region’s efforts in
groundwater management, recycled water and other drought-proofing
measures.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled from the
Sacramento region to Napa Valley to view sites that explore
groundwater issues. Topics included groundwater quality,
overdraft and subsidence, agricultural use, wells, and regional
management efforts.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater management and the extent to which stakeholders
believe more efforts are needed to preserve and restore the
resource.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the Russian and
Santa Ana rivers – areas with ongoing issues not dissimilar to
the rest of the state – managing supplies within a lingering
drought, improving water quality and revitalizing and restoring
the vestiges of the native past.
This printed copy of Western Water examines California’s drought
– its impact on water users in the urban and agricultural sector
and the steps being taken to prepare for another dry year should
it arrive.
Statewide, groundwater provides about 30 percent of California’s
water supply, with some regions more dependent on it than others.
In drier years, groundwater provides a higher percentage of the
water supply. Groundwater is less known than surface water but no
less important. Its potential for helping to meet the state’s
growing water demand has spurred greater attention toward gaining
a better understanding of its overall value. This issue of
Western Water examines groundwater storage and its increasing
importance in California’s future water policy.
This issue of Western Water examines the issue of California
groundwater management, in light of recent attention focused on
the subject through legislative actions and the release of the
draft Bulletin 118. In addition to providing an overview of
groundwater and management options, it offers a glimpse of what
the future may hold and some background information on
groundwater hydrology and law.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This 7-minute DVD is designed to teach children in grades 5-12
about where storm water goes – and why it is so important to
clean up trash, use pesticides and fertilizers wisely, and
prevent other chemicals from going down the storm drain. The
video’s teenage actors explain the water cycle and the difference
between sewer drains and storm drains, how storm drain water is
not treated prior to running into a river or other waterway. The
teens also offer a list of BMPs – best management practices that
homeowners can do to prevent storm water pollution.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36-inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Nevada Water provides an
overview of the history of water development and use in Nevada.
It includes sections on Nevada’s water rights laws, the history
of the Truckee and Carson rivers, water supplies for the Las
Vegas area, groundwater, water quality, environmental issues and
today’s water supply challenges.
Seawater intrusion can harm groundwater quality in a variety of
places, both coastal and inland, throughout California.
Along the coast, seawater intrusion into aquifers is connected to overdrafting of
groundwater. Additionally, in the interior, groundwater
pumping can draw up salty water from ancient seawater isolated in
subsurface sediments.
Overdraft occurs when, over a period of years, more water is
pumped from a groundwater basin than is replaced from all sources
– such as rainfall, irrigation water, streams fed by mountain
runoff and intentional recharge. [See also Hydrologic Cycle.]
While many of its individual aquifers are not overdrafted,
California as a whole uses more groundwater than is replaced.
The treatment of groundwater— the primary source of drinking
water and irrigation water in many parts of the United States —
varies from community to community, and even from well to well
within a city depending on what contaminants the water contains.
In California, one-half of the state’s population drinks water
drawn from underground sources [the remainder is provided by
surface water].
Groundwater management is recognized
as critical to supporting the long-term viability of California’s
aquifers and protecting the
nearby surface waters that are connected to groundwater.
California has considered, but not implemented, a comprehensive
groundwater strategy many
times over the last century.
One hundred years ago, the California Conservation Commission
considered adding groundwater regulation into the Water
Commission Act of 1913. After hearings were held, it was
decided to leave groundwater rights out of the Water Code.
California, like most arid Western states, has a complex system
of surface water rights
that accounts for nearly all of the water in rivers and streams.
Groundwater banking is a process of diverting floodwaters or
other surface water into
an aquifer where it can be
stored until it is needed later. In a twist of fate, the space
made available by emptying some aquifers opened the door for the
banking activities used so extensively today.
When multiple parties withdraw water from the same aquifer,
groundwater pumpers can ask the court to adjudicate, or hear
arguments for and against, to better define the rights that
various entities have to use groundwater resources. This is known
as groundwater adjudication. [See also California
water rights and Groundwater Law.]
If California were flat, its groundwater would be enough to flood
the entire state 8 feet deep. The enormous cache of underground
water helped the state become the nation’s top agricultural
producer. Groundwater also provides a critical hedge against
drought to sustain California’s overall water supply.
In years of average precipitation, about 40 percent of the
state’s water supply comes from underground. During a drought,
the amount can approach 60 percent.
For something so largely hidden from view, groundwater is an
important and controversial part of California’s water supply
picture. How it should be managed and whether it becomes part of
overarching state regulation is a topic of strong debate.
In early June, environmentalists and Delta water agencies sued
the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Kern
County Water Agency (KCWA) over the validity of the transfer of
the Kern Water Bank, a huge underground reservoir that supplies
water to farms and cities locally and outside the area. The suit,
which culminates a decade-long controversy involving multiple
issues of state and local jurisdictional authority, has put the
spotlight on groundwater banking – an important but controversial
water management practice in many areas of California.
Groundwater, out of sight and out of mind to most people, is
taking on an increased role in California’s water future.
Often overlooked and misunderstood, groundwater’s profile is
being elevated as various scenarios combine to cloud the water
supply outlook. A dry 2006-2007 water year (downtown Los Angeles
received a record low amount of rain), crisis conditions in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the mounting evidence of climate
change have invigorated efforts to further utilize aquifers as a
reliable source of water supply.
When you drink the water, remember the spring. – Chinese proverb
Water is everywhere. Viewed from outer space, the Earth radiates
a blue glow from the oceans that dominate its surface. Atop the
sea and land, huge clouds of water vapor swirl around the globe,
propelling the weather system that sustains life. Along the way,
water, which an ancient sage called “the noblest of elements,”
transforms from vapor to liquid and to solid form as it falls
from the atmosphere to the surface, trickles below ground and
ultimately returns skyward.
Traditionally treated as two separate resources, surface water
and groundwater are increasingly linked in California as water
leaders search for a way to close the gap between water demand
and water supply. Although some water districts have coordinated
use of surface water and groundwater for years, conjunctive use
has become the catchphrase when it comes to developing additional
water supply for the 21st century.
